Northern Arizona Healthcare (NAH), the largest healthcare organization in its region, has partnered with Premier Inc.

Northern Arizona Healthcare (NAH), the largest healthcare organization in its region, has partnered with Premier Inc. (NASDAQ: PINC), a leading healthcare improvement company, to drive greater efficiency in its care delivery practices. The agreement includes access to Premier's group purchasing organization (GPO), integrated supply analytics and expense reduction performance services.

Employing 3,000 healthcare professionals across two hospitals and multiple ambulatory clinics, surgery and treatment centers, NAH chose to collaborate with Premier based on its approach to total cost management and quality improvement. This is NAH's first engagement with Premier, replacing its 25-year relationship with another GPO.

"NAH is excited about partnering with an industry-leading organization like Premier," said Karan Sangha, system director of supply chain, NAH. "Premier's scope, reach, technology and reputation were all key criteria in helping NAH make this important decision. We look forward to a collaborative relationship that not only takes waste out of the healthcare system, but also continually improves quality in this rapidly changing healthcare environment."

As part of the agreement, NAH will leverage Premier's GPO to align and aggregate its purchasing practices. NAH will also implement system-wide supply analytics, which are powered by the cloud-based PremierConnect® performance improvement platform, to further unify purchasing activities, and standardize, integrate and analyze spend data to generate savings across its organization. PremierConnect houses clinical data on approximately 40 percent of U.S. patient discharges and more than $48 billion in annual purchasing information. Additionally, Premier advisors will work with NAH to drive and sustain efficiencies that eliminate variation, streamline operations and improve outcomes in care delivery practices.

"We are thrilled to welcome NAH to the Premier alliance," said Susan DeVore, president and CEO, Premier. "Success in healthcare today requires a holistic approach to cost and quality improvement, with interoperable technologies that provide full visibility into spend and practice patterns for timely, evidence-based decisions. This partnership creates new opportunities to meet and exceed the expectations of the more than 700,000 people that NAH serves, as well as increases the scale and power of our alliance to improve the health of communities across America."